Russellville and Pope County voters waited until past their bed times once again Tuesday night as a computer glitch prevented vote totals from being finalized before midnight.

A representative with ES&S, the company that provided electronic computer machines to the county, was working on the problem, according to Commissioner Dale Brown.

"ES&S is trying to solve the problem over phone lines," Brown said shortly after 10 p.m. Tuesday night inside the Pope County Courthouse. "We did run some report totals while ago, but we don't feel comfortable releasing those. At this point, we have been doing some quick checks and make sure we could verify some of the numbers. I don't know how long it will take or how long it's going to be."

Pope County's ballots were counted Tuesday night, but it was a matter of getting computers to read the chips the ballots were cast on at individual polling places during Tuesday's elections. Brown explained votes were counted when cast by the machines, then their chips -- about the size of cellular phones -- were brought to the courthouse to be inputed into another computer to be printed and reported to the waiting crowd.

"We're trying to get it done as quickly as possible," Brown said. "We've got all the chips, except two, and they are on their way in. Every precinct had a scanner, and when a person voted their votes were scanned and recorded on chips. Those chips were brought here and input into an omni reader. From that point, it's updated to a laptop, what they call election reporting management system. Then, totals are printed.

"If we can get it to read (the chips) and get the program to perform the way it's supposed to, we'd have totals rather quickly."

Since the polls closed at 7:30 p.m. and people started gathering after 8 at the courthouse in Russellville, no election commissioners gave any reports on the status of the results. Neither County Clerk Don Johnson, working in his final year as county clerk, nor Judge Jim Ed Gibson had any information for anyone until media representatives questioned election commissioners after 10 p.m.

Pope County Assessor Karen Martin said the delay in Tuesday night's results were unavoidable on the part of the people working the election.

"I look forward to having the results as soon as possible," she said. "I plan on staying until the bitter end."

Republican challenger Larry Pettus, who was headed home, said he didn't like the idea of having to wait.

"When you have computer problems, you have to work through that," Pettus said. "Maybe next time, the people (election commission) should be more knowledgeable about computers.

Despite Tuesday night's anxiety, Pettus did add, "The waiting is just the exciting part of politics."

The general consensus of the candidates still waiting at the courthouse after 10:15 p.m. was, "Let's go home and go to bed."

General comments overheard Tuesday night ranged from the "angry mob on the first floor is about to tar and feather us," to "We need a new election commission."

In addition, many candidates didn't know how they would find out or when they would find out Tuesday's election results.

Pope County Deputy Clerk Laura McGuire, a candidate for county clerk, said she was going to wait it out. Her opponent, David Ivy, was also seen at the courthouse Tuesday night.

"It's very disappointing," McGuire said. "We worked so hard to get this far. Now, it's 10:30, and we still don't know anything. I've come too far to leave now. After working in the clerk's office for so many years, this is nothing unusual. There's usually some glitch that comes up during elections."